400 - 300BC: The first Roman roads were being constructed, Persian armies were fleeing before Alexander the Great, the Anasazi, Hohokam and Mogollon tribes thrived in North America . . . and the great Maya cities were being built without the aid of beasts of burden or the wheel. Ruled by astronomer priests who lived in these magnificent cities, the common people took shelter in thatched villages. The workers were kept in line through fear and religious instructions. For nearly 20 centuries the Mayas ruled Central America.
During this time Maya astronomers carried out astronomical measurements with remarkable accuracy yet they had no instruments other than sticks. They used two sticks in the form of a cross, viewing astronomical objects through the right angle formed by the sticks. With such crude instruments the Mayas were able to calculate the length of the year to be 365.242 days (the modern value is 365.242198 days).
Two further remarkable calculations are of the length of the lunar month. At Copán (now on the border between Honduras and Guatemala) the Maya astronomers found that 149 lunar months lasted 4400 days. This gives 29.5302 days as the length of the lunar month. At Palenque in Chiapas they calculated that 81 lunar months lasted 2392 days. This gives 29.5308 days as the length of the lunar month. The modern value is 29.53059 days. This was a remarkable achievement!
The Mayas also devised an arithmetic system that included the concept of zero, a complex calendar system based on their solid understanding of astronomy, and a system of writing which included both hieroglyphic and phonetic representation. And they developed sophisticated farming methods using complex irrigation systems.
The Mayas dominated Central America for more than 1,500 years, from well before the birth of Christ to late in the first millennium. They built large cities with palaces and pyramids throughout the region.
Then, the Maya civilization collapsed.
The mysterious nature of that collapse has captivated generations of scholars, provoking theories running from environmental despoliation and drought through vicious warfare. Even the time frame is the subject of debate, with some arguing for a sudden collapse within a few short years and others arguing for a prolonged disintegration over several hundred years.
Archaeologists excavating the ruined Maya city of Cancuen in Guatemalan have found evidence of what may have been one of the pivotal events in the collapse of the Maya civilization - - - the desperate defense of that once-great trading center and the ritual execution of at least 45 members of its royal court.
An unknown enemy not only wiped out the royal dynasty in about 800 A.D., but also systematically eliminated religious and cultural artifacts as well. After this event, cities in the western Maya lowlands in Guatemala were abandoned, most within the next 20 to 30 years. The displaced populations moved to the east and north, where they quickly depleted local resources ..... and faded away.
"This was a critical historical moment,” said archaeologist Arthur A. Demarest of Vanderbilt University, whose team discovered the Charnel House this summer. "It set off the domino of Classic Maya collapse."
There are hundreds of web pages devoted to the Maya Cities, Culture, Math, The Maya Calendar and the Collapse of The Maya Empire. There is no sense in duplicating all that information here. Just Google "Maya Civilization".
We have included pages with photos and brief descriptions of the Maya sites we have recently visited in Belize, Guatemala and in Mexico's Yucatan.